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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26069098">Chasing Twisters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HDLynn/pseuds/HDLynn'>HDLynn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Blood and Injury, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Medical Procedures, Mild Language, One Shot, Wounds, emotional immaturity, healthy ideas of self-worth, hint of fluff, hint of hurt/comfort</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:26:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,463</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26069098</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HDLynn/pseuds/HDLynn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A question leads to a crossroads with your and Mando's relationship.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Din Djarin/Reader, Din Djarin/You, The Mandalorian/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>72</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Mando has my heart</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Chasing Twisters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/moriamithril/gifts">moriamithril</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The prize for my friend &amp; follower rzrcrst on tumblr for my 250 follower giveaway. &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When the Mandalorian had strolled into the little town where you worked, you knew he was different. He had sauntered into the cantina while you served a regular their drink, looking like he owned the joint. The air had swirled with dust and dirt in lazy spirals, the warrior looking like he smelled of leather, blaster fire, and blood just from the look of him. </p><p>You’d scoffed, wondering how long it would take this shiny showboat of a bounty hunter to tangle with the wrong person. For you knew of Mandalorian hunters, like the infamous Boba Fett, everyone knew their type didn’t get along with others. They were unmatched at their jobs and single-minded in the same, collecting single bounty rewards that were worth more than what you would probably make in your lifetime. The showboats of the bounty hunter world, if there was such a thing.</p><p>But when he had taken in a bounty, he had them slammed down on the bar and in cuffs in mere moments, all while holding a kriffing baby safely in a sling. That last fact had changed your original assessment of him most of all, the little green kid with large ears babbling at you in contrast to his taciturn caretaker.</p><p>The Mando had apologized for the damage to the bar and then asked if you knew of anyone looking for a babysitting gig. If your day couldn’t have gotten any weirder you had volunteered for the job. </p><p>You told yourself it was just a way to get of that shitty dusty-ass planet, and that had been true. But as the days aboard the Razor Crest turned to weeks, then months, you finally admitted to yourself that you'd become completely infatuated with the Mandalorian.</p><p>It had been easy at first, to just see the metal and armor, see his as almost emotionless like a machine, but that hadn’t lasted long. </p><p>Mando was quiet, that was true, but he had a surprisingly sarcastic and dry sense of humor. So that had been a surprise, and there was the dichotomy of how you treated bounties versus how gentle he was with the kid and then also you. Quiet he might be, but his feelings all ran deep under the calm surface, a man under the layers of metal, durafabric and tactical canvas. </p><p>One night, after a particularly close call when a bounty hunter had gotten on the ship and nearly taken the child before Mando had returned, had proved him to be burning up hot and hard for you. Pressing you up against the cold steel of the ship, the weight of his helmet resting heavily against the curve of your neck. Your breath caused the silver metal to fog up as you both came down from your peaks as he pulled away, a gloved hand ghosting over a bruise on your cheek he had been unable to prevent.</p><p>It was unspoken that it was a ‘one-time thing’ but it hadn’t been and had migrated from against the wall, or against a supply crate, to Mando’s bed. Both of you lied to yourselves that it was only carnal pleasure, simply two lonely adults blowing off steam, even as you curved and intertwined around each other like lovers in your sleep with the helmet still yet between you.</p><p>So, of course, you could only let him patch himself up so many times before you wouldn’t let him brush off your offer to help when he returned this time. You cared too much to let him take care of it again with the kriffing cauterizer. </p><p>“Mando, you’re hurt,” you chided. The blood dribbled onto the floor of the Crest with soft plops, just emphasis to your words.</p><p>Mando just grunted and tried to move past you, but you put a hand to his cuirass.</p><p>“Sit,” you ordered with a steady hand pushing him back towards a seat.</p><p>Mando didn’t even hesitate before sitting down heavily.</p><p>You don’t know who was more surprised if the tilt of his head was any indication, it hadn’t been your physical strength that had decided his actions. He could have refused you, like he had done several times before, but he hadn’t.</p><p>You grabbed the med-kit and cleaned the wound on his arm after he had reluctantly removed the single vambrace so you could access the deep laceration. He had been cut right above where the beskar had ended, the trauma bright and quivering. It was easy to focus on your task when you had an oozing wound to deal with. You used a saline solution to flush out the dirt and sand before you stitched it up and smoothed bacta over the red line so that it wouldn’t scar up more than might have otherwise.</p><p>“Mando… have you ever thought of what you might do if you didn’t do all this?” you asked softly after having wrapped gauze around his forearm to secure your work. Fingertips wandered, ghosting over the soft skin of his wrist, feeling his heartbeat pounding there. </p><p>Instantly you knew you had crossed a line. His whole being tensed up, an emotional wall slamming back up that you hadn’t notice come down until you were locked out again.</p><p>“It’s irrelevant,” Mando bit out, ripping his hand from yours.</p><p>He stood up so suddenly you had to stumble back to keep from being toppled over.</p><p>“What the kriff are you talking about?” You ask, frustration flaring in your eyes.</p><p>“<em>This</em> can’t go anywhere,” he said, gesturing between the two of you, the words came out hot and crackling like a snap of electricity. “I can’t think about things being different, it doesn’t change shit.”</p><p>So that was how it had all started to crumble apart, Mando storming off after spitting out those words. Pushing you away as far as he could until he had finally, stiffly, said he would be dropping you off tomorrow at a “good planet”.</p><p>You had stared at him in shock before spitting out angry words you couldn’t even remember now as you heard the landing gear engage. His footsteps sounded hollow behind you as the ramp was now lowering.</p><p>Turning to search Mando’s visor for a moment, you settled on the spot you just somehow knew his eyes were. Your heart twisted horribly within your chest when he turned quickly away, unable to hold your gaze. The realization that you knew him so well to be able to do so despite the helmet was at odds with his insistence to push you away once you had gotten too close.</p><p>For once, your silence made him be the one to talk, trying to fill up the space between you both.</p><p>“This… relationship… would have never worked out,” he muttered the scanty excuse, an attempt at platitudes that fell woefully short and you both knew it. Knew it from how the air still tried to fizzle and crack around you with a pull you both knew was there.</p><p>You’d had the time while packing to calm down from your rage and now you were just — not sad — disappointed. You saw clearly now that you wouldn’t work out, not if he wasn’t even willing to try, to try and let you in.</p><p>“Mando, if you're the only one making the decisions here… we never had a relationship,” you whispered, the bitterness of the truth in front of you never having been so clear.</p><p>As you shifted your bag on your shoulder, you couldn’t help but swoop down and give a tight hug and kiss to the kid, if you had one true regret today it was going to be him. He cooed up at you, eyes wide and ears drooping.</p><p>“Chin up, buddy,” you mutter into his little forehead, refusing to cry. Before you whispered more quietly, so Mando’s helmet wouldn’t pick up the words that were thick on your tongue, “Take care of him for me, okay?”</p><p>Those dark eyes looked at you with such a deep understanding you would have been unsettled if you weren’t already used to it. The kid always seemed to just know things, feel what you were feeling.</p><p>Setting him down with one last kiss pressed heavy on his forehead like a blessing, you nodded curtly to Mando, unsure of how else one said goodbye to their ex-boss/almost but not really a lover.</p><p>Stepping off the ramp, a bit of dust puffed up around your boots, swirling softly around you. You didn’t saunter away, you didn’t need to. You knew your worth, that it wasn’t on you to try and “fix” how he saw you or himself. What Mando did or didn’t do, if he was actually letting your walk out of his life? It was on him now to act or not.</p><p>~*~*~</p>
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